My daughter is currently in crunch time trying to decide between two amazing schools - Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University. At Vanderbilt, she has received the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship and we, as a family, would be paying a lot more if she attended Northwestern. She loves both schools, but can’t decide whether Northwestern is worth all of that money out of pocket. She wants to study the natural sciences (not sure specifically what yet) and eventually go on to medical school. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Why is this hard? You have a choice between 2 peer schools, she loves both, but one is much less expensive. You haven’t given any reason to prefer Northwestern. So go with Vanderbilt and don’t look back!
@privatebanker@tk21769@happy1 Thank you all for the responses! It truly means a lot! While she does love both schools, she slightly does prefer Northwestern for the quarter system and the ample amount of opportunities in the greater Chicago area that’s a little closer to home. She tells me that she wouldn’t mind either one though and thinks student life will be fine wherever she goes. Would you all take into consideration prestige for the “natural sciences” program between the two schools as well?
I see no meaningful difference in prestige between Northwestern and Vandy.
If she strongly prefers Northwestern and you can comfortably (no debt, no hardship) manage undergrad as well as med school then by all means go for it. If money is an issue especially with grad school in her future then I’d opt for Vandy in a heartbeat.
No. I know Northwestern is a great school, but I don’t really associate it with the natural sciences. Economics and journalism come to mind when I think of Northwestern.
When I think of Vanderbilt, I think of health sciences first. That’s probably because the medical school is such a big part of the campus, and when I visit my daughter in Nashville, there are always stories on the news and advertisements about the Vanderbilt Hospital.
Northwestern is stronger overall academically, but not six-figures stronger. The slight differences in quality/prestige are not worth that much money, unless she hated Vandy, loved NU, and you had money to burn.
In my hair-splitting undergraduate private U tier system, Northwestern is one level above Vandy. One level isn’t worth that much money unless, like I said, she is way in favor of NU and you can easily afford the cost difference.
For perspective, here’s where I have them in my hair-splitting, anal-retentive tier system:
Tier 3:
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Hopkins
Northwestern
Tier 4:
Emory
Georgetown
Notre Dame
Rice
Vanderbilt
Washington U
… and maybe CMU.
My tiers are based mainly on academic rep/quality, endowment, and (I’m embarrassed somewhat to say) a small drop of prestige. But mostly it’s based on academic rep and quality, as well as i’m able to ascertain. I’m strongly considering replacing prestige with undergraduate focus.
I have posted on this topic elsehwere, but you need to keep in mind that medical school is an astounding amount of money, perhaps approaching 400,000 for a private medical school by the time medical school rolls around. And you can’t work in the summer and much of the aid is loan based, if any. Log onto the medical school sites to see the tution now. Now, I firmly reject the advice that you should invariably go for the cheaper school, because the primary basis to reduce medical school costs is to get into a highly competitive low cost school (Baylor) or a free medical school (Case Western speciality school) or an MD Ph.D or merit money. So, if you are choosing between Yale and Alabama, go to Yale. Yale is far more likely to get you a low cost medical school. But here, there is no discernible basis to think that Vanderbilt/Northwestern split, whatever it might be, would result in a better shot at merit money in medical school. And both would give you a fighting shot at one of the low cost options. I would absolutely bank the money from the CV scholarship to pay for over a third of medical school and if you are fortunate enought to get merit money or something similar, you might be able to go almost free. Good luck.
One more point, I did not appreciate until recently how crazy medical school admissions and finances are, despite having ample reason to know. Although you need to enjoy the college experience, going to medical school does require a four year plan, including knowing how you are going to get in (many admission rates are sub-5%, that is, as hard to get in as Harvard undergraduate) and how you are going to pay those big bucks. It is worth logging onto the medical school websites to realize that they do count parental income, even for a 26 year old “child”. On the other hand, not to be too much of a pessimist, right now is an amazing time to be involved in medicine and the journey, well expensive and difficult is worth it if it is your dream.
Can you even pay for Vanderbilt with this scholarship and no loans other than the standard federal student loans? Would your family need to borrow more than that? Start there.
If Vanderbilt’s costs are easy to cover, how about the cost of Northwestern? How secure is your daughter’s college fund? Is there the equivalent of four years at Northwestern sitting in a 529 or the like? Or would you need to cobble together the money every year from multiple sources and tighten your belts?
Provided Vanderbilt is possible without huge strain for the family, this looks pretty much like a no brainer to me. The savings are significant and could go a long way toward helping with the costs of med school or just with helping your daughter launch into life after colege. They also can give your daughter financial freedom while in college to take an unpaid or poorly paid internship that she really likes instead of having to pin down the best payong summer job or part time school year job that she can find.
If I take prezbucky’s list for fun and honestly reorder it for pure, “country club” prestige - as I call it. Tee shirt bumper sticker etc
FWIW. New England born and raised. Business executive/Senior client facing banker over 25 years for a global banking giant. Not an academic. Not a journalist or engineer. Not an ad comm or counselor. Not a dr. Not pretty much everything else So this comes with all the biases and lack of knowledge in specific areas outside of industry that entails.
Brown
Hopkins (1 if anything medically related)
Duke
Cornell
Tie / Georgetown/Vanderbilt/Northwestern
ND
CMU
Rice
Wash U.
Or maybe this is men’s collegiate lacrosse rankings in 2017
Country clubs around here (tri-state area) would put:
Duke
Brown
Hopkins
Cornell
Northwestern
Notre Dame/Vanderbilt/Rice - tie
Wash U/Georgetown - tie
CMU
I guess it’s somewhat based on perspective. But looks like most perspectives here illustrate that point that there is not a significant enough difference between Northwestern and Vanderbilt. And the CV scholarship is impressive. So if she loves both schools and plans for med school then take the money and run to Vandy.
@prezbucky - I agree with prezbucky’s grouping. Vandy is a great school but it doesn’t have the historical reputation that Northwestern has. Remember that as of 2-3 years ago, Vandy was a school ranked in the 18-22 range, competing with the likes of Emory, Rice, etc. Northwestern has been in the 9-13 ranking spot for the last 30 years. High school students are very impressionable by ranking shifts year-to-year but it takes DECADES to change perceptions. And if you take the average ranking for the last 20 years, Vandy is a top 20 school and certainly not a top 15 school. Based on attending Stanford for my MBA and living / working in NYC at a prestigious investment bank / mega private equity fund: my ranking would be.
Tier 1A: Duke / Northwestern / Brown / Hopkins / Dartmouth
Tier 1B: Cornell - I put this here because its selectivity is significantly less than the others. Ask anyone in a high-prestige job in NYC on Wall Street or ask students at top private prep schools (Dalton, Horace Mann, Trinity, Andover, Exeter, etc, ), they will put Cornell a step below the others. As of just a year ago, the average SAT at Cornell was almost a 90-100 points lower than Duke and Northwestern. That’s significant. Cornell is really a hybrid of a private ivy league and a top tier public university like Michigan, given its state subsidized schools. Part of prestige relates to exclusivity and selectivity and Cornell is the least selective of the schools in Tier 1A and 1B.
Maybe we can revise it to say that “Private Cornell” belongs with Duke, NU and the rest, while “Public Cornell” belongs with UNLV, or at least the hotel school does.
In all seriousness, though, I have Cornell up there primarily because their academic rep seems to be pretty strong across the board, similar to NU and Duke. They aren’t as selective, but my tiers aren’t looking at that too much – they’re based mostly on perceived academic quality/rep and endowment (the ability to spend money to benefit students…).
Seriously, great campus, wonderful for pre-med and I imagine that being a Cornelius Vanderbilt scholar comes with some nice perks and extra opportunities. Given the differential in cost, I vote for Vandy!
